NORDIC PHOTO COMPETITION 2025
With his photograph “Ribs in the Snow", taken off the west coast of Greenland, Gerner Rasmussen, AB aboard the IRENA ARCTICA, won this year's Nordic photo competition for seafarers.
Throughout the year, the national organizers (in Denmark, SEA HEALTH & WELFARE) receive photos from seafarers on board Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic ships. Once the national competitions have been held, the 15 best images from each country go on to the Nordic Seafarer Photo Competition. In 2025, 115 seafarer photographers submitted 778 photos.
The Nordic competition is held in turn among the Nordic countries, and this year, Denmark hosted it. The organizing country provided competent judges, and this year they were Werner Karrasch, a photographer and filmmaker at The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, and Søren Zeuth, a documentarist and portrait photographer.
When announcing the winning photos, the judges thanked the organizers for allowing them to serve. “It has been both difficult and exciting,” they spoke. “The photographic standard is very high. Many of the photographers have taken a stance on their subject and made an effort to capture the moment or find the best subject.” The judges approached the task as follows. They began by walking around in silence, each separately. Afterwards, they looked at the photos together and removed the pictures that had no chance. After this round, most photos were still in the competition. These photos were then divided into three groups: those with a chance of winning, runner-up photos, and those ultimately sorted out. The judges said, “It was challenging to choose the final winners, as there were so many good photos, and several photos were swapped around during the process”. The judges emphasized the photographer's underlying thoughts. What did they choose to photograph? What did they want to achieve with the image, and how is the composition and colors? In the selected photos, one can sense the photographer's presence.
In some photos, the judges felt post-processing was lacking in both color and cropping. They believe that when the possibility of digital post-processing exists, it should be used.
There are prizes for 1st to 5th place, and we thank this year's sponsors: Ulykkesforsikringsforbundet for Dansk Søfart, Denmark; Sjöfartstidningen, Sweden; Sjøfartsdirektoratet, Norway; Félag skipstjórnarmanna, which publishes the magazine Sjómannablaðið Víkingur in Iceland; and Finnlines, Finland.
Click on the pictures to see them in a larger version.